Good quality dog treats can prove to be quite expensive – especially when you have multiple animals – so I developed this cheap and simple recipe to make my own. All of the ingredients come from the kitchen so human and hound can happily share a biscuit – if you are so inclined to do so!
I have three spaniels – Basil, Obi and Winston.
Basil arrived first – collected from a house near the big Sainsbury’s in Sunderland. Obi followed 18 months later from a small village in Northumberland – bought by me as a complete surprise for my family a few days before Christmas. Winston trotted along 14 months later as a Good Friday follow-up – and with that, the House Spaniel Pack was complete!
In a tale straight out of Jeremy Kyle, Obi and Winston are both half-brothers and uncle/nephew… They share the same father, yet Winston’s mother is Obi’s grandmother. If you struggle to wrap your head around that, do not worry… it took me a gin and tonic and a diagram on a piece of paper to wrap my head around it!
With such energetic and full-on hounds, we get through a lot of dog treats in our house. Spaniels are very biddable with training and biscuit rewards, yet prone to flights of fancy and ‘peculiarities’.
The one thing guaranteed to silence the hounds and command their attention is when I shout out the question “Who would like a treat?!” With a clatter of claws on the kitchen floor, they marshal themselves and obediently sit expectantly; waiting for the dog biscuit to be conveyed to mouth.
I use a small biscuit cutter to stamp out these treats – either a little west highland terrier or some bone shaped cutters I got from Amazon. Any biscuit cutter will do though – I don’t imagine the dogs will be too fussed about the shapes!
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Wheat-Free Dog Treats
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 70+ Biscuits 1x
Ingredients
- 250g finely ground porridge oats
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 150ml hot water
- 1 chicken stock cube
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 160C/325F/Gas Mark 3.
- Using a food processor or spice grinder, finely grind the porridge oats until you have a fine powder. Tip the powder into a bowl.
- Dissolve the chicken stock cube in 150ml of kettle hot water. Stir in the Olive Oil before pouring over the oat powder. Bring together into a sticky dough and leave to rest for 10-15 minutes to allow the oats to soak up the water. After this time, the dough should be soft and pliable.
- Roll the dough out onto some greaseproof paper until it is ½ cm deep. Use a small pastry cutter to stamp out biscuits – I use a small West Highland Terrier cutter or some bone shaped cutters I got from Amazon.
- Place the cut biscuits onto a lined baking sheet, leaving only a small gap between each biscuit as they will not spread. Bring together any scraps of dough together and keep rolling out until all the dough is used up. Place the biscuits into the preheated oven and bake for 25 minutes until lightly golden and dry.
- Allow the biscuits to fully cool on the trays before placing into an airtight container where they will keep for several weeks.
- Prep Time: 20 Mins
- Cook Time: 25 Mins
- Category: Pet Food
Keywords: Dog Treats, Dog Biscuits, Pet Food
Hi just looked on the ingredients of stock cube & the main ingredient is wheat flour. As my dog is wheat intolerant how do you get around this?
Hi Julie. I use Swiss Vegetable Bouillon powder made by Marigold. If it’s not in your local supermarket, you can buy it online. This contains no wheat. Hope this helps 🙂
Does it make a difference if I use Quaker Oats instead of finely ground porridge oats
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Hi Jaida. The ground oats give the dough more of a pastry consistency. I would think un-milled Porridge Oats would be too chunky and not give the consistency to roll out. You could whizz them up in a food processor (mine has a spice mill attachment I use). Alternatively, a pestle and mortar would probably work. 🙂
What stock cube brand did you use
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Hi Jaida. I used Marigold Swiss Vegetable Bouillon Powder as it is gluten free. Hope this helps 🙂